The Best Things to Do for Australia Day in Sydney
Island festivals, rooftop pool parties, dog paddleboard races.
The Best Things to Do for Australia Day in Sydney
Island festivals, rooftop pool parties, dog paddleboard races.
Lamingtons. Vegemite. Barbecued Sausages. Listening to the nation's biggest song countdown. Maybe one or some of these are part of your yearly Australia Day tradition — or maybe you just go wherever the occasion takes you. Either way, Sydney will be buzzing with options, ensuring that your public holiday certainly won't be boring. Here's our pick of the best ways to spend the day, featuring rooftop pools, dogs on paddleboards, beer countdowns and an entire island festival.
Of course, it's a day of great contention in Australia, often called ‘Invasion Day’, ‘Day of Mourning’, ‘Survival Day’ or ‘Aboriginal Sovereignty Day’ (since 2006). Be mindful on Tuesday.
Top image: The Old Clare Hotel, Nikki To.
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It’s the annual moment for dusting off that barbecue and cracking open a case of VB (or any, any other Australian beer). With Australia Day just a few short sleeps away, this weekend is the perfect time to get the festivities started. But perhaps you’d rather avoid the typical rowdy pub shenanigans on the day and find yourself a solid party in advance. If you want to do something a little different this year, late-night ravers BAD DEEP are putting on an event that could be just what you’re looking for.
Let the melodic, psychedelic rhythms of Sydney’s best new DJs get you grooving from 9pm tonight (Friday January) at Enmore’s SLYFOX for ‘Strayadelica. Headlining will be Melburnian house master Amateur Dance, along with local acts Levins, Chux, Le Fruit along with some of BAD DEEP’s resident DJs.
Immerse yourself straight into the heart of Australia’s electric dance music past. Spinning tracks from true blue pop culture cultures like Wake in Fright, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Cars That Ate Paris, gear up for a night of blissed-out beats and outback bangers.
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Start your patriotic shenanigans on Australia Day eve with, um, six hours of American hip-hop. The Cliff Dive, Sydney’s favourite tiki bar, will be taking a trip back to the noughties, with all the artists that ruled the decade: from 50 Cent and Ja Rule to Chingy and Nelly. There’s even a 20-minute Rihanna marathon promised in the mix, courtesy of Nes, resident DJ.
The event is the second in the venue’s Naughty Noughties series. The first was so over-crowded with shakin’ booties that The Cliff Dive’s party-loving folk couldn’t help but organise another. Joining Nes will be Nick Lupi, who’s one-half of Spit Syndicate, one-seventh of One Day, has played Splendour and includes a bunch of G-Unit in every set, as well as King Lee, doyen of Sydney clubbing and deliverer of bangers. Meanwhile, 24 Karat Kev will be taking care of the MCing.
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Show your love for the nation by being front and centre for top notch local live music this Australia Day. For nix. Between 12.30pm and 6.30pm, The Rocks will be taken over by a free, live music invasion. There’ll be two outdoor stages, where ten local acts will deliver their original goods all afternoon long.
On the Warrane Stage at First Fleet Park, up-and-coming R&B vocalist Thandi Phoenix will get proceedings going with her brooding, soulful sounds, including tunes from her debut EP, Come Around, inspired by a recent trip to Africa. If you caught Phoenix at Splendour in the Grass last year, you’ll know this is a set to catch. Also on the bill are Torres Straits rapper Mau Power, songwriter Katy Steele (better known as Little Birdy’s fearless leader), and the impossible-not-to-dance-to Melbourne Ska Orchestra.
Meanwhile, on Tallawoladah Stage on Atherden Street, Robbie Miller, winner of triple j’s 2013 National Indigenous Music Awards, will get the show rolling with his incredible falsetto and poetic lyrics. Hot on his heels will be nostalgic electronica duo Left., super-hyped folktronica artist Gordi, old-school soul and beats duo JONES Jnr. and hip hop headliner Tuka, whose third solo album Life Death Time Eternal scored a 2015 ARIA nomination.
Between sets, you can kick back on George Street, which will be turned into a bit of an activity space. There’ll be a croquet green from Croquet NSW, a caravan playing the triple j Hottest 100, an instant photo booth, and more.
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If you’re one to picnic on Australia Day, this one’s for you. Load up your basket with Tim Tams, Caramello Koalas and a possibly-homemade-probably-not pavlova and head for Sydney’s sandstone waterfront park for roving performers, floating concerts and one heck of a sunset.
See the demolition of Sydney Festival’s Ephemeral City in the Cutaway, catch the end of the Ferrython under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, then ooh and aah at the Tall Ships. There’ll be floating concert barges cruising past all day, then you’ll be front and centre to see one of Sydney’s most spectacular sunsets at Nawi Cove.
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Come with us now on a journey through Cambodian psychedelic rock. Picture yourself in a karaoke bar in Phnom Penh. Now imagine a couple of psychedelic rockers turning up and blowing the joint away with their mixed bag of grooves — from old school Cambodian rock ‘n’ roll to soul. Now you’re getting close to The Cambodian Space Project experience. Led by muso Julien Poulson and vocalist Channthy Kak, the band revives Cambodia’s popular music history — which Pol Pot nearly wiped out altogether — through both classics and originals.
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In celebration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture held on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people in Sydney, Koori Radio 93.7FM presents the annual Yabun Festival.
The largest one-day celebration of its kind, the festival seeks to showcase some of the best Indigenous music, speakers and creative talent in the country. Get cultured in traditional dance as performers kick up the dust; wander the market stalls of Corroboree Ground; or be enlightened by some of Australia’s leading artists, authors and thinkers at the SpeakOut Tent.
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This Australia Day, meet Australian cinema’s new heroine. Myrtle ‘Tilly’ Dunnage (Kate Winslet) wouldn’t consider herself a star at anything other than making stunning dresses, nor does she try to conquer anything but her own doubts and cruel small-town gossip. However, she’s the guiding force in a film that warmly embraces local flavour, deftly navigates everything from drama to mystery to comedy, and serves up an offbeat, engaging time at the movies.
Tilly is the titular figure in writer/director Jocelyn Moorhouse’s The Dressmaker, which charts Tilly’s homecoming to outback Australia after being driven away as a child. And specially for Australia Day, two openair cinemas are showing it in Sydney — St George Openair Cinema and Moonlight Cinema.
Read our review — we bloody loved it.
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If you reckon VB is the worst thing you could drink on Australia Day, this craft beery do just might. From 10am, the crew from the Keg & Brew will be celebrating the best beers and beats of 2015.
Dubbed the ‘Hoppiest 100 Beach Party’, the event will see the heritage pub counting down and serving the year’s hottest 100 craft beers as voted by their loyal patrons. It’s not at the beach per se, but go with it. With a live stream of Triple J’s top tracks of the year, you’ll have plenty of entertainment on the road to No.1. There’ll be $5 Yulli’s Norman Aussie Ale tinnies, $6.50 Riverside 69 Summer Ale, $6.50 Hills Apple Cider, $6.50 Coopers Pale Ale and — most importantly — $5 Reschs.
There’ll be a ‘Aussie BBQ menu’ and you’re encouraged to wear your best Aussie attire. Topping off one person’s Australia Day? A limited edition deluxe wooden ice chest of Coopers Pale Ale will go to one happy little Vegemite.
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Sydney’s new hyped-up venue, The Old Clare Hotel is holding its very Australia Day, and with a rooftop pool like that, we’re pretty sure this’ll be packed.
Head up to the rooftop pool for live DJs and streaming of the triple j Hottest 100. Local artist Cuzn will be performing in The Clare Bar from 3-5pm, and the Old Clare’s bartenders will be slinging Vegemite Martinis and Redskin Sour cocktails (along with their usual offering) all day.
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This Australia Day, the Watsons Bay Boutique Hotel presents the annual Sydney event both your pooch and you will be pumped for: The Every Man and His Dog stand-up paddle race. Also open to those without a paddleboard (it can be hired on the day) or a four-legged friend (can’t hire, go without), the race offers something for everyone, with different categories including long distance, sprint and a treasure hunt.
You don’t have to participate, if you’re like us, you’ll likely be crazily Instagramming from the shore. It’s dogs on paddleboards, people. Dogs. On. Paddleboards.
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We thought an island entirely dominated by wine would be the peak of Sydney Harbour’s water-girt events. But there’s a brand new event coming to another of Sydney’s islands, Goat Island, and it’s set to be a certifiable humdinger on Australia Day.
Presented by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (go team), Goat Island Sounds is Sydney’s newest music festival, taking over its namesake island on January 26. Centred around the countdown to rule them all, the triple j Hottest 100, this shiny new party is all about the live local beats. Expect the likes of Kilter, LUEN, Just A Gent, Kule and Ok Sure cranking out a set each. Plus, the Hottest 100 will be playing on the day, so you won’t miss out on joining the rest of Australia in wailing “awwwww too early” when your voted tunes pipe up on the radio.
But this is Australia Day right? Where the brews and nosh at? Sydney’s favourite, constantly-teaming-up foodies Mary’s and Young Henrys will be boating out to Goat Island with their burgs, beer and cider — and there’s no BYO FYI.
